Political Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is the prejudice against or the hostility for the Jewish people. This hostility can be traced back to ancient times and is often rooted in a hatred of the Jewish people’s ethnic background, religion and culture. As enlightenment ideas began to mix with anti-Semitic thought, anti-Semitism changed from being based primarily on religious reasons and transformed into racial discrimination. Anti-Semitic theorists took Social Darwinism and used it to show Jews as an “inferior race”.(1) Using racial inferiority as a basis Anti-Semitism took off as a conservative, reactionary political ideology that resisted change and modernization during the middle of the 19th century. At the heart of anti-Semitism was the propaganda that was used to spread anti-Semitism to the downtrodden classes that were suffering during the economic and political changes that were taking place. At this time Jewish communities were achieving emancipation and equal rights throughout Europe. The political movement was partly a backlash against that emancipation and partly a response to the role that Jewish people were playing in the economic and political changes that were taking place. The movement of political anti-Semitism took the anxieties of the people about new political and economic changes and concentrated it on a single scapegoat, the Jewish people. To all the conservatives who saw modernization stripping away tradition, they could discern one figure spearheading the movement forward and that was the Jew. (2)
Nick Kaschub
1 Chambers, M., Hanawalt, B., Rabb, T. K., Woloch, I., Grew, R., & Tiersten, L. The Western Experience. Vol. 2, 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Inc., 2007 757-758.
2 Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976, 168.
Political Anti-Semitism in Germany:
The Brothers Grimm: In Germany from 1789-1914 A.D. historians saw the rise of political anti-Semitism rising to level never before seen which would spread throughout the rest of Europe. The rise and spread of political anti-Semitism has many forms in Germany during this period. The first form is in literature that spread anti-Semitic propaganda painting Jewish people as villainous thieves, murders, and monsters. An example of this type of literature is the collection of 209 short stories, folk tales, and fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm that they wrote in 1812 A.D. Parents would read these tales to their children teaching them to fear and hate the Jews. The irrational hatred created in the youth would have long lasting implications on them throughout their lives.
Heinrich von Treitschke: Another author that used his pen to spread anti-Semitism was Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896 A.D.). Treitschke was a German historian that wrote and lecture about politics. He was strongly for the unification of Germany into one state instead of remaining as smaller states. In 1863 A.D. he became a professor at Freiburg until 1866 A.D. when he moved to Berlin to support the Prussians during the Austro-Prussian War also known as the “Seven Weeks War.” It is at this time that he was appointed to edit the conservative journal the Preussische Jahrbücher which has his most famous quotes used by political anti-Semites for years to come. “Year after year there pours over our Eastern frontier…from the inexhaustible Polish cradle, a host of ambitious, trouser-selling youths, whose children and children’s children are one day to dominate Germany’s stock exchanges and newspapers…Right into the most educated circles, among men who would reject with disgust any thought of ecclesiastical intolerance or national pride, we can hear, as if from one mouth, “The Jews are our misfortune””[1]. This just shows Treitschke’s strong motivation of nationalism amongst the German peoples.
He also expressed that people could not have duel or double nationalities which he called Doppelnationalitat. Anyone who did not assimilate into Germany and thought of themselves as a race or religious group could not be considered both. Treitschke along with his colleagues in the German Conservative Party was also trying to establish Germany as the most Political Anti-Semite country in the world. “Treitschke proudly proclaimed that “the fatherland of modern anti-Semitism is Germany, where the systems were thought out of the slogans coined. The German literature is the richest in anti-Jewish writing.” Whether Germany was, in fact, the most anti-Jewish country in the world was a matter of opinion, but Treitschke and like-minded Jew-haters were doing their best to make it so”[2]. By looking at the popular authors and their writings in Germany during this time period it shows the rapid spread of ideas of political anti-Semitism.
The Christian Social Party: The Christian Social Party was a political party that started in 1878 A.D. in Germany by Adolf Stocker. The creation of this highly Conservative political party was to counter the strong Liberal and Socialist parties in Germany at this time. Stocker brought together strong Conservative and Christian ideals to gain support against the Social Democrats who had the most power in Germany. The general election in 1878 A.D. was their first test to see if they could get some control by gaining any of the six open capital’s seats. “The Christian Social Party contested three of the capital’s six seats and fought on an independent program which demanded professional corporations and compulsory arbitration, old age and invalid pensions, factory legislation, restoration of the usury laws, progressive taxation, and taxation of stock exchange dealings and luxuries”[3]. Stocker was unable to gain the support from the working class and they were unable to gain any of the six seats. Instead the Christian Social Party attracted the attention of the middle class and intellectuals when Stocker embraced anti-Semitism. “By 1879, however Stocker had nothing to lose by embracing anti-Semitism. The workers had turned a deaf ear and the Liberal press and politicians of Berlin, both comprising numerous influential Jews, had been hostile from the start. They resented not only his clericalism and his conservatism, but also his social program which threatened their moneybags”[4]. Later on with a collation with the Conservative Party, Adolf Stocker was able to obtain a seat in the Reichstag. Eventually the Conservative Party would end the collation with the Christian Social Party due to Stocker’s strong Anti-Semitic views. The Christian Social Party will eventually in the early 1900s dissolve with the members joining or forming new political parties, but their long lasting impression of using political anti-Semitism would change German politics for years to come.
The Hep Hep Riots: Throughout Europe for centuries the Jewish people had been regarded as non-citizens and without rights. Throughout the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries Jews were lobbying their governments to be emancipated. When Napoleon Bonaparte of France went through Germany he emancipated the Jews and freed them from their ghettos under the Prussian Edict of 1812 A.D. “From a political point of view, emancipation was still half realized because the Prussian Edict of 1812, which promised the Jews full equality under the law, was riddled with loopholes, was significantly curtailed in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat, and was not fully implemented for all of Germany until 1871”[5]. In 1815 A.D. Jewish representatives went to the Congress of Vienna to demand that they be formally emancipated, but anti-Jewish supporters portrayed the Jewish people as trouble makers who are trying to get more power over Europe. “This widespread lie, combined with the fact that many Europeans, reeling from the famine of 1816, were heavily indebted to Jewish bankers and moneylenders, sparked violence beginning in Wuerzburg in August of 1819. The attacks on Jews and Jewish property spread from there to whole of Germany, with particularly vicious conflict occurring in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, and Darmstadt”[6]. This would start a series of anti-Jewish disturbances known as the Hep Hep riots.
The origin of name Hep Hep riots is unknown, but scholars believe that there are two possible origins. The first is that it is an acronym for “Hierosolyma est perdita” a cry used by Crusaders which means that “Jerusalem is lost.” The second competing theory of the origin is that it was a cry that sheep herders would yell out to their sheep. Historians believe that this was borrowed by Jew-baiters to use as a slogan to provoke the Jews into a fight. “The local German authorities invariably responded to the disturbances by protecting the Jews; in several cases, they even called in the military to hold back rioters. However, the government’s reaction was not entirely favorable to the Jews. While they protected them physically, many rulers used the attacks as pretexts not to grant equal rights to Jews, explaining that if even the suggestion of such a move was provoking popular unrest, the actual granting of such would lead to catastrophe”[7]. It is not until after the revolutions of 1848 A.D. that a decisive change came in the legal status of the Jews making them emancipated.
Blood Libel in Xanten, Germany: Blood libels are trails that Christians used to demonize Jews by connecting them with the devil and sorcery which dominated throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. “The blood libel was the accusation that according to the Jewish religion, Christian infants or young children had to be abducted, abused, tortured, slaughtered, and their blood consumed (especially on the occasion of Passover) for religious purposes”[8]. They believed that the blood was used for medical purposes, making Matzoth (unleavened bread), mock crucifications, or for vengeance. In Prussia in 1891 A.D. the death of a five year old child named Johann Hegmann started a blood libel which would polarize the people against the Jewish people. “In 1891, at Xanten in Prussia, a butcher named Adolph Buschhoff, was accused of murdering a 5 year old Johann Hegmann, and of drawing his blood and concealing it. However, the two public prosecutors found that the accused could not have committed the deed, and that there was no evidence showing that blood had been concealed”[9]. The news of this libel spread all across Europe and would have long lasting implications which continued the superstitious anti-Semitic beliefs of the Jews stealing and killing children.
Conclusion Germany:
Thoughout most of the late eighteenth century to early twentieth centuries the cloud of Anti-Semitism grew over Germany until the storm would eventually spread throughout the rest of Europe. By looking at the literature and authors in this time period historians can pick up how Jews were being viewed in Germany. From the Grimm Brothers Tales to Treistschke's work the growing hatred for Jews was being read by children and intellectuals from all different walks of life throughout Europe at an alarming rate. Also looking at the political parts at the time like the Christian Social Party show the birth of political anti-Semitism in government. Granted the Christian Social Party did not successed during the elections, but they opened the door for more anti-Semitic political organizations to control seats of power in Germany and in other European countries. Finally by looking at the Hep Hep riots and the blood libel in Xanten these show how the media coverage of these events would demonize the Jewish people and depict them as Liberals trying to control all of Europe. In the following years after this time period we see political anti-Semitism at its strongest in Germany and the rests of that are still able to be seen in this present day.
Alex J. M. Helland
End Notes: 1.) Pulzer, P. J. The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964) 249.
2.) Fischer, Klaus P. The History of an Obsession: German Judeophobia and the Holocaust (New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1998) 109.
3.) Pulzer, P. J., 91-92.
5.) Fischer, Klaus P., 94.
6.) Shyovitz, David. The Ameriacan-Isreali Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/hep.html.
7.)Shyovitz, David. 8.)Laqueur, Walter. The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006). 9.)Isseroff, Ami. Zionism and Israel Information Center. http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/blood_libel.htm.
French Anti-Semitism
French Revolution
Before the French Revolution, anti-Semitism in France was similar there as it was in other places in Europe. Anti-Semitic policies existed in France. Jews were excluded from trade in certain areas, including city of Marseilles in 1652. Paris opposed Jewish settlement up until 1767 and Jews had to pay special taxes and could not own land in most of the major cities of France. (1) With the French Revolution came the emancipation of the Jews. They now had the right to vote and participate in government. They transitioned from outsiders of society to active citizens. (2) The traditional motivations for anti-Semitism were based in theological ideals. Revolutionary concepts like liberty, equality and even deism to some extent, undermined those concepts based on religious doctrines. (3)Citizenship for Jews was founded on the radical dedication of the ‘rights of man’ as put forth in the Declaration of the Rights of Man in August, 1789, which opened with the like “Let there be neither Jew nor Christian…” Religion was no longer supposed the determining factor for whether or not someone could be a citizen. It was supposed to be a private aspect of a person’s life and not something factored in to the secular realm.4] 5]
Napoleon
Following the fallout of the French Revolution, Napoleon came to power to restore order and went on to conquer a majority of Europe. Napoleon freed the Jews in all the territories he conquered as part of liberal policies. They were granted civil liberties in such places as Switzerland, Holland, and Italy by the 1790s. Napoleon himself was not necessarily pro-Jew. In certain situation he accommodated anti-Semitic sentiments for strategic reasons and hampered the upward mobility of Jewish populations in conquered regions. [6] He was able to garner support from within the Jewish community. French Jews were able to spread throughout French society, from upper class to lower working class. [7] In 1806 and 07 he called meetings with the Assembly of (Jewish) French Notables in order to ensure their support, but the Jews were not major collaborators in his imperial master plan. Still these meetings unintentionally sparked rumors he was working for the Jews from anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. They believe Napoleon was their puppet and that his overall agenda was their design. 8]
Napoleonic Backlash
Once Napoleon fell from power many of the civil liberties that the Jewish community attained in conquered territories were repealed. The reversal of Jewish emancipation was part of the reaction against the “Age of Reason,” the French Revolution, and Napoleon. 9] The 1820s and 1830s saw periods of intense anti-Jewish backlash. Even when they saw areas of improvement it never came without cost. In 1846 French Jews were able to get full legal rights in France as part of a rise in liberalization in government. They would gain political and economic ground but then during the crisis 1848 anti-Jewish riots broke out all across France. 10] Jews stood as a symbol for why liberal policies it did not work. Whenever they granted more rights and participation in government things would get worse. Of course this was a grave oversimplification of the situation, but in times of social crisis it seemed to make enough sense. 11]
In the late 1800s racism became major component to anti-Semitism. Conservatives and Catholics Christians argued that Jews were biological contaminants to larger human race. [12] Because liberalism was letting them into society they spread their influence like an infection and created economic and political turmoil were symptoms of their nefarious deeds. [13] Also part of the sharp explosion of anti-Semitism in France was the failure on the part of the Jews to assimilate into French society. By this time they were supposed to have fully integrated into the French social strata. The ideals of nationalism and socialism, with the new biological and sociological theories, grow the seeds for a new anti-Semitism that assumed that Jews would lose their Jewish identities if they actually intended to become a part of France. [14] The Revolution made them citizens and by the mid 19th Century they achieved equal rights. At a certain point they were supposed to become completely French and shed their Jewish identities. [15]
French Anti Semites
There were a number of French anti-Semites who made assimilation difficult. Utopian socialist, Charles Fourier, saw Jews as ruthless and “unreconstructible” capitalists. Jews were crude businessmen who profited off the misery and suffering of the working class. The French Enlightenment thinker and author Voltaire saw Jews as clannish and fraudulent people. [16] He made Jews out to be perverse villains in his works of fiction. For instance, in Candide the main character is swindled by Jews who refused to pay full price for the diamonds he was selling in order to handle certain legal entanglements. Due to these financial constraints he was forced to live on a lowly farm because that was all he could afford. [17] The prospect of assimilation drew many Jews from all over Europe to France, but French anti-Semites stayed as constant reminder that they were Jews. Many even expressed a certain amount of the distrust of the assimilated Jew, for they were trying to hide who they really were. [18]
Also an interesting place to find ant-Semitic sentiments was from within the assimilated Jewish community. For example Bernard Lazare was an assimilated French Jew who did everything he could to diminish he association to the Jewish community. Originally known for his anarchist leaning he campaigned in 1894 for the freedom of anarchist Jean Grave. He wrote a book on anti-Semitism, its history and origins, between the years 1891-94. He blamed much of the historical anti-Semitism on the Jews themselves. [19] He was frustrated with the Jewish people in France, particularly those who maintained exclusive Jewish communities. [20] He downplayed the Christian roots of anti-Semitism in Rome and after the Diaspora. Jews were reclusive and were excessively prideful in the Jewish identities. He explained that was the source of much of the resentment towards the Jews throughout history.[21] Lazare also denounced the victims fleeing czarist persecution in Russian. After all, he believed the eastern European Jews exemplified all negative Jewish stereotypes. [22] He felt that assimilated Jews were more refined and educated. Assimilated revolutionists like Marx and Lassalle were better examples of how Jews were supposed to be. He believed anti-Semitism would end when new ideals were finally put into practice and all the artificial barriers that separated Jews from the general population would be eliminated. [23]
Dreyfus Affair
Alfred Dreyfus
There are exceptional explosion of Anti-Semitism in France in the 1890s. A great deal of it was rooted in the arrest and prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of leaking secrets to the German government. [24] At first, it was a relatively quiet event. Dreyfus was arrested and imprisoned without much incident in 1894. But as time progressed it became a great national issue and evidence surfaced proving his innocence. By 1898, the campaign to free Dreyfus had become a national issue and doubts in regards to the evidence became public. Anti-Semitic riots broke out and mobs formed in several cities. French Jews were forced to examine the politics of assimilation. Most of them feared the Dreyfus affair fueled anti-Semitism. The more the issue was dragged out the worse it would be for Jewish community. They chose to remain silent on the issue and refused to take a side. [25] French Jews weathered the conflict and remained committed to the ideals of equality and emancipation promised by the French revolution. However a small faction challenged to status quo would not let Dreyfus live out his life behind bars. [26] Emile Zola was one individual who is known as a defender of Jewish rights and played a major role in Alfred Dreyfus’ eventual emancipation. While he was still in favor of assimilation he pointed out that “if the Jews still existed, it was the fault of Anti-Semitism.” Jews would have assimilated if it were not for the kind of persecution that was happening to Dreyfus. [26]
Bernard Lazare
The Dreyfus affair forced assimilated Jews to reassess their position in society. In 1895, Bernard Lazare, an assimilated Jew, was approached by Dreyfus family to look into the situation. This was a departure from his anarchist ideals, since Dreyfus was from an upper class Jewish family, a French patriot, and military officer. He discovered there was an underlying campaign against the Jewish officers in the French military and released a booklet of inconsistencies in the Dreyfus case. [27] Over the course of his investigation and propaganda campaign, Bernard Lazare abandoned his personal anti-Semitic reservations and become a defender of Jewish emancipation after the Dreyfus affair. [28] Lazare saw anti-Semitism as a cornerstone for French Catholic capitalist society, and Alfred Dreyfus was a symbol of the oppressed Jew. Although he was assimilated for the most part he was still an easy scapegoat and object of persecution for the Christian oppressors. [29] Before Dreyfus, Lazare thought that ‘national exclusiveness’ and nationalism would dissolve after revolution occurred. After the affair, Lazare decided nationalism could be different from ‘national exclusiveness.’ People ought to have freedom to define their own cultural identity according their personal resources. Forcing the population into uniformity destroyed originality and peculiarity. [30]
Jerod Koehler, French Anti-Semitism
1] Jaher, Frederic C. A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994. 84 2] Jaher, 4 3] Jaher, 114 4] Jaher, 116 5] Marrus, Michael R. The Politics of Assimilation: A Study of the French Jewish Community at the time of the Dreyfus Affair. London: Oxford University Press, 1971. 87
6] Jaher, 9, 116 7] Marrus, 49 8] Jaher, 117 9] Jaher, 117 10] Jaher, 171 11] Lazare, Bernard. AntiSemitism: Its History and Causes. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. 100 12] Jaher, 171 13] Lazare, 158 14] Jaher, 117 15] Maher, 94-96 16] Jaher, 114 17] Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Daniel Gordon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 1999. 113, 116 18] Marrus, 49-50 19] Lazare, v 20] Marrus, 187 21] Lazare, xvi 22] Marrus, 189 23] Marrus, 177 24] Jaher, 242-243 25] Marrus, 222 26] Marrus, 163 27] Marrus, 171 28] Lazare, v-vi 29] Lazare, xvi 30] Marrus, 188, 191
Anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia
Anti-Semitism in Russia in the 19th and early 20th century like anti-Semitism in other parts of the world changed from a religiously based line of thought to a racially and politically motivated ideology. Russian anti-Semitism during this time was, again like in other parts of the world, a reactionary movement against a new and modern social order. Jews were seen as representatives of this modernization as financiers, traders and revolutionaries. The reactionary movement in Russia was especially harsh because of the backwards, essentially medieval structure of government leading into the twentieth century. This medieval style of government was extremely oppressive with respect to the Jewish people and there were tomes of restrictions heaped upon the Jews in Russian society."Specific to Jews were more than a thousand pages of restrictive legislation" (1). Jews in Russia
The oppression of the Jewish people was quite extreme in Tsarist Russia. Not only were there thousands of pages as stated above of restrictive legislation but the movement of Jewish people in Russia was greatly restricted. Jews were restricted for the most part to settle only in the “Pale of Settlement” in western Russia which was established under Catherine II in 1772. (2) On top of this restricted movement Jews were restricted from entering upper education and banned from many professions. This oppression radicalized many Jews and transformed them into liberal revolutionaries. These Jews protested their second rate status and the Tsarist government that oppressed them. The Jew as a liberal revolutionary just added to the Russian population’s demonization of the Jewish people and gave anti-Semitic nationalist politicians more ammunition.(3) In Russia Jews were seen as agents of modernization as they were successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. In Russia where there was possibly a more severe backlash to modernization than any other part of the world. Many nationalist, right wing parties saw the Jewish businessman as the form for modernization. As traditional economic and political institutions in Russia were giving way to modern institutions the traditionalist, nationalist right sought to use anti-Semitism as the main vehicle to combat change and modernization. Russian Pogroms
Modern anti-Semitism did not start in Russia however anti-Semitism as a political movement was furthered through its Russian practitioners. One of the most blatant displays of anti-Semitism in the world up to this point was the Russian pogroms. The Russian anti-Semitic pogroms as they are now known were large-scale, targeted and repeated anti-Semitic rioting. These riots occurred on a small-scale in 1821, 1849, 1859, and 1871 however new circumstances caused for an eruption of pogroms during three time periods. From 1881-1884, 1903-1906 and 1915-1921. (4) During these pogroms men, women and children were looted, raped, terrorized and killed. While violence escalated from pogrom to pogrom overall there were over 100,000 Jewish casualties between the three time periods. The three waves of pogroms coincide with major events in the turmoil of Russia. The first wave of pogroms came shortly after the murder of the liberal tsar Alexander II. The Jews were implicated in Alexander’s murder and that along with other anti-Semitic propaganda set the stage for the first wave of pogroms. The beginning of the 20th century started off terribly with a famine and an outbreak of cholera in 1902 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. All of these events were deflected by the Russian government and animosity was directed toward the Jews in Russia. (5) `The third wave of pogroms came about during a time of great turmoil with the disintegration of the Russian Tsarist regime and the ensuing revolution. The power vacuum that was created by the Russian Revolution allowed the Black Hundreds to orchestrate pogroms with little resistance. The Black Hundreds
One of the driving forces behind these pogroms was known as the Black Hundreds. This collection of anti-capitalist, anti- Semitic far right movements was one of the leading forces in the execution of the pogroms and the overall zeal of the anti-Semitic movement in Russia. While the pogroms were largely spontaneous outbursts of anti-Semitic violence in a combustible, modernizing Russia the Black Hundreds played an essential role in organizing and stepping up the violence in the sequential pogroms. The main political group in the Black Hundreds was the URP or Union of the Russian People headed by Dr. A.I. Dubrovin.(6) While the many political groups included in the Black Hundreds did not see eye to eye on most politics, they had one key issue that unified them and that was their passion for anti-Semitism. "Although one can find points of contact between the far right and far left, or the far right and traditional conservatives, it was the radical right's mono-obsession with the Jews that was its most distinctive feature" (7). While the pogroms caused the destruction of vast amounts of Jewish life and property there was significant anti-Semitic literature that was coming out of Russia during the late 19th century and especially in the beginning of the 20th century. The most significant and transcendent piece of this anti-Semitic literature is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. “The Protocols were purportedly the secret resolutions of international Jewish leaders, a game plan for the domination of the world and enslavement of the goyim- Yiddish for Gentiles” (8). The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols became a powerful tool for the spread of anti-Semitic thought throughout Europe and the entire world. While their greater effect was felt after WWI their initial publication was in 1905 by Pavolachi Krushevan a supporter and organizer of a pogrom in 1903. The Protocols have long been proven to by a forgery, a combination of both earlier French and German anti-Semitic work and it is still uncertain the original author of this work .The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are possibly the single most significant piece of anti-Semitic literature that was created during the political anti-Semitic movement of the 19th and early 20th century.(9)
“At least a decade before its counterparts in other countries, the Russian extreme right came close to formulating a strain of national socialism. Its alliance of old elites and resentful masses; its radical rejectionism; its reliance on violence as its chief political tool; and its demagogic anti-Semitism all anticipated the future fascist movements of France, Germany, and Romania” (10).
Nick Kaschub
1] Marks, Steven How Russia Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003, 142.
2]Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976, 183.
3]Marks, 143
4]Marks, 144
5]Morais, 185
6]Marks, 147
7]Marks, 148
8]Marks, 149
9]Marks, 151
10] Marks, 149
Key Figures & Primary Source: The nineteenth century was full of influential people and revolutions that would change the way people lived, worked, and played.
The revolutions ranged from the enlightenment to the Napoleonic age. This meant a great change was going to happen and what was happening. With all of the changes someone needed to be a scapegoat for all of the problems that would arise while these revolutions and movements were happening. The main movement that was going on in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was that of anti-Semitism. This was a movement in which the Jewish community was going to be the scapegoat for all the problems that would arise from all of the mayhem that was going on. There were many influences of this movement ranging from brothers to a musician to a chaplain. Richard Wagner:The first of these three main influences is the music composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner. He was born in Leipzig, Germany. He was married and moved to Dresden this is where he was introduced to a leftist policy that wanted to form a unified state for the poor people of Germany. He would hold gatherings for those who were going with this movement some of these influential people included his colleague August Röckel and a Russian anarchist.[1] There would soon be an uprising and the government would take those who were for the revolution in Dresden. While Rockel and the anarchist were apprehended and imprisoned, this while Wagner ran away to Paris and then lived in Zurich for the next twelve years.[2]
Wagner was exiled from his home and continued to write his music and operas. He also believed that his father was not his father but composer Geyer; whom Richard thought was Jewish. Richard Wagner was knows as one of the first people to judge the Jews not by the religion or political motives but just on race itself.[3] This is a great meaning to the time, due to the fact, that the Jews were no longer being hated for things they were doing but for whom they were born.
Wagner wrote his first essay of his thoughts titled “Judaism in Music”. This was to attack his main rivals who were Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn. The two composers were of Jewish heritage. With both of the rivals being of the same race helped influence Wagner to write this essay. This essay was to go against everything that Jews were capable of. Richard Wagner wanted to make sure that everyone was able to see that Jews were bad.[4] This did not happen the first time that essay was published. The first time it was published was early in his lifetime while people were focused on their own worries and not so much on the writings of some unknown person. After Wagner had become better known and his hatred became more noticeable he republished the “Judaism in Music”. This time the essay had a greater effect on the people of society. He had the reactions that he had expected some wrote back to the newspaper with hatred for Wagner, whilst others wrote in support of what Wagner had to say.[5]
The essay stated that the Jews had no connection to the German spirit. This meant that they were not born of German heritage and were not of the same souls or spirit of those who were. The Jews were supposedly different from the rest of the German people. Also, in the essay Wagner mentions that the Jews were incapable of producing their own music. They were only able to produce shallow and artificial music. The music that the Jews were producing was stolen works from the great composers that were before their time. He criticized their work for being very hard to follow and allowing for confusion among the listeners.[6] There was no Jewish composer who could have the ability to produce music in an artistic way because they had no true compassion to help in creating a wonderful masterpiece. This was just the beginning of the influential works that Richard Wagner would create about the Jews and there music.
Wagner in his later life would be known for his sensational music. He would have created some of the best works that society still knows today. Even though his music would be astonishing they would not out do his written works. After he published his essay the second time he was not going to be remembered just for his music but also his anti-Semitic writing. In 1899, Richard Wagner and Arthur De Gobineau wrote a book called The Foundation of the 19th Century. This was about the superiority of the Aryan race and was read worldwide. This would become a staple reading during the reign of Hitler.[7]
Adolf Stoecker:
The most influential of the time may be one of the greatest and scariest influential people. This person was Adolf Stoecker. He was a very strong anti-Semite. This is because he believed that the German culture was being over taken by the emancipated Jews. He would dedicate his life to the Christian faith. He would hold the place of chaplain in the court under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm. This would help Stoecker gain the confidence and the following to create the Christian Social Party. This party was to manipulate the Social Democracy among the workers. He wanted to gain the backing of the working class to make the party he created gain in force. This did not work in the first election.[8] Antisemitism was at the early stages at this point. Stoecker used the backing of those that were following him to give speeches to those that would listen. He tried to use that as a hidden agenda to gain more power. Adolf wanted to make sure that Jews were going to lose any and all status that they had.
Stoecker using this new platform to gain followers gave a speech about what the civil rights of the Jews. In 1879 he delivered a speech called “What we demand of modern Jewry". In this speech he made several demands of the Jews. The demands were that the Jews renounce their ambition to rule Germany. Secondly, they make their press more tolerant of German culture. Finally that there be quotas placed on the number of Jews that were in a certain professions and in universities.[9] He wanted these things to make sure that the Jewish communities knew there place and did not try to overtake the Aryan race. Stoecker wanted to place quotas on what and where the communities of Jews were so they could keep track of them. He did not want them to be in the educated work force. So he kept them out of schools and colleges that would make them smarter than some of those that he believed was superior.
Adolf Stoecker was a great influence over the people of his time because of him being a chaplain, but in the end it was not who he was it was what he created. The party he created would go on and be one of the biggest groups to be hateful to not only the Jews but anyone who was different. Hitler would be one of the followers of Stoecker and his party. So it was because of the Christian Political Party that allowed for Germany to become one of the biggest Anti-Semitic countries in the world.[10]
Grimm's Brothers: The final major influence during this time was the Grimm Brothers. They were and still are known for their set of folktales and fairytales. They published two hundred and nine stories. The most common are “Snow White”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Cinderella” with stories about love and how love wins out.[11] The prince always saves the girl from sort of trouble, with fairytales like these the Grimm Brothers have become a great influence not only in their generation but also the generations that follow them. These are the stories people hear about after the military shut down all of the anti-Semitic movements and people. The only thing is what happened to all of the other stories.
These stories are the ones in which the Jews are the villains. They lie, steal and cheat from those who are of the superior race. The story in which the brothers made sure they were able to make a very clear point to show their loathing for the Jewish race is in the story “The Jew Amongst the Thorns”. Parents found these stories to be a great influence on the children of those that believed that the Jews were to be blamed.[12] Children from a young age were taught of the horrible Jews and that they were not to be trusted. This was a great influence in the young population of Germany. Primary Source: Grimm's Brothers "The Jews Amongst the Thorns"
There was once a rich man, who had a servant who served him diligently and honestly. He was every morning the first out of bed, and the last to go to rest at night, and whenever there was a difficult job to be done, which nobody cared to undertake, he was always the first to set himself to it. Moreover, he never complained, but was contented with everything and always merry. When a year was ended, his master gave him no wages, for he said to himself, that is the cleverest way, for I shall save something and he will not go away, but stay quietly in my service. The servant said nothing, but did his work the second year as he had done it the first, and when at the end of this, likewise, he received no wages, he submitted and still stayed on. When the third year also was past, the master considered, put his hand in his pocket, but pulled nothing out. Then at last the servant said, master, for three years I have served you honestly, be so good as to give me what I ought to have, for I wish to leave, and look about me a little more in the world. Yes, my good fellow, answered the old miser, you have served me industriously, and therefore you shall be graciously rewarded. And he put his hand into his pocket, but counted out only three farthings, saying, there, you have a farthing for each year, that is large and liberal pay, such as you would have received from few masters. The honest servant, who understood little about money, put his fortune into his pocket, and thought, ah, now that I have my purse full, why need I trouble and plague myself any longer with hard work. So on he went, up hill and down dale, and sang and jumped to his heart's content. Now it came to pass that as he was going by a thicket a little man stepped out, and called to him, whither away, merry brother. I see you do not carry many cares. Why should I be sad, answered the servant, I have enough. Three years, wages are jingling in my pocket. How much is your treasure, the dwarf asked him. How much. Three farthings sterling, all told. Look here, said the dwarf, I am a poor needy man, give me your three farthings, I can work no longer but you are young, and can easily earn your bread. And as the servant had a good heart, and felt pity for the little man, he gave him the three farthings, saying, take them in the name of heaven, I shall not be any the worse for it. Then the little man said, as I see you have a good heart I grant you three wishes, one for each farthing, they shall all be fulfilled. Aha, said the servant, you are one of those who can work wonders. Well, then, if it is to be so, I wish, first, for a gun, which shall hit everything that I aim at, secondly, for a fiddle, which when I play on it, shall compel all who hear it to dance, thirdly, that if I ask a favor of any one he shall not be able to refuse it. All that shall you have, said the dwarf, and put his hand into the bush, and just imagine, there lay a fiddle and gun, all ready, just as if they had been ordered. These he gave to the servant, and then said to him, whatever you may ask at any time, no man in the world shall be able to deny you. Heart alive. What more can one desire, said the servant, to himself, and went merrily onwards. Soon afterwards he met a Jew with a long goat's beard, who was standing listening to the song of a bird which was sitting up at the top of a tree. Good heavens, he was exclaiming, that such a small creature should have such a fearfully loud voice. If it were but mine. If only someone would sprinkle some salt upon its tail. If that is all, said the servant, the bird shall soon be down here. And taking aim he blew, and down fell the bird into the thorn-bushes. Go, you rogue, he said to the Jew, and fetch the bird out for yourself. Oh, said the Jew, leave out the rogue, my master, and I will do it at once. I will get the bird out for myself, now that you have hit it. Then he lay down on the ground, and began to crawl into the thicket. When he was fast among the thorns, the good servant's humor so tempted him that he took up his fiddle and began to play. In a moment the Jew's legs began to move, and to jump into the air, and the more the servant fiddled the better went the dance. But the thorns tore his shabby coat from him, combed his beard, and pricked and plucked him all over the body. Oh, dear, cried the Jew, what do I want with your fiddling. Leave the fiddle alone master, I do not want to dance. But the servant did not listen to him, and thought, you have fleeced people often enough, now the thorn-bushes shall do the same to you. And he began to play over again, so that the Jew had to jump higher than ever, and scraps of his coat were left hanging on the thorns. Oh, woe's me, cried the Jew, I will give the gentleman whatsoever he asks if only he leaves off fiddling, a whole purseful of gold. If you are so liberal, said the servant, I will stop my music, but this I must say to your credit, that you dance to it so well that one must really admire it. And having taken the purse he went his way. The Jew stood still and watched the servant quietly until he was far off and out of sight, and then he screamed out with all his might, you miserable musician, you beer-house fiddler. Wait till I catch you alone, I will hunt you till the soles of your shoes fall off. You ragamuffin, just put six farthings in your mouth, that you may be worth three halfpence. And went on abusing him as fast as he could speak. As soon as he had refreshed himself a little in this way, and got his breath again, he ran into the town to the justice. My lord judge, he said, I have come to make a complaint, see how a rascal has robbed and ill-treated me on the public highway. A stone on the ground might pity me, my clothes all torn, my body pricked and scratched, my little all gone with my purse - good ducats, each piece better than the last, for God's sake let the man be thrown into prison. Was it a soldier, said the judge, who cut you thus with his sabre. Nothing of the sort, said the Jew, it was no sword that he had, but a gun hanging at his back, and a fiddle at his neck, the wretch may easily be recognized. So the judge sent his people out after the man, and they found the good servant, who had been going quite slowly along, and they found, too, the purse with the money upon him. As soon as he was taken before the judge he said, I did not touch the Jew, nor take his money, he gave it to me of his own free will, that I might leave off fiddling because he could not bear my music. Heaven defend us, cried the Jew, his lies are as thick as flies upon the wall. But the judge also did not believe his tale, and said, this is a bad defence, no Jew would do that. And because he had committed robbery on the public highway, he sentenced the good servant to be hanged. As he was being led away the Jew again screamed after him, you vagabond. You dog of a fiddler. Now you are going to receive your well-earned reward. The servant walked quietly with the hangman up the ladder, but upon the last step he turned round and said to the judge, grant me just one request before I die. Yes, if you do not ask your life, said the judge. I do not ask for life, answered the servant, but as a last favor let me play once more upon my fiddle. The Jew raised a great cry of, murder. Murder. For goodness, sake do not allow it. Do not allow it. But the judge said, why should I not let him have this short pleasure. It has been granted to him, and he shall have it. However, he could not have refused on account of the gift which had been bestowed on the servant. Then the Jew cried, oh. Woe's me. Tie me, tie me fast. While the good servant took his fiddle from his neck, and made ready. As he gave the first scrape, they all began to quiver and shake, the judge, his clerk, and the hangman and his men, and the cord fell out of the hand of the one who was going to tie the Jew fast. At the second scrape they all leaped up and began to dance, the judge and the Jew being the best at jumping. Soon all who had gathered in the market-place out of curiosity were dancing with them, old and young, fat and lean, one with another. The dogs, likewise, which had run there, got up on their hind legs and capered about, and the longer he played, the higher sprang the dancers, so that they knocked against each other's heads and began to shriek terribly. At length the judge cried, quite of breath, I will give you your life if you will only stop fiddling. The good servant thereupon had compassion, took his fiddle and hung it round his neck again, and stepped down the ladder. Then he went up to the Jew, who was lying upon the ground panting for breath, and said, you rascal, now confess, whence you got the money, or I will take my fiddle and begin to play again. I stole it, I stole it, cried he, but you have honestly earned it. So the judge had the Jew taken to the gallows and hanged as a thief.[13]
Chambers, M., Hanawalt, B., Rabb, T. K., Woloch, I., Grew, R., & Tiersten, L. The Western Experience. Vol. 2, 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Inc., 2007
Fischer, Klaus P. The History of an Obsession: German Judeophobia and the Holocaust (New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1998).
Isseroff, Ami. Zionism and Israel Information Center. http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/blood_libel.htm. Jaher, Frederic C. A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Laqueur, Walter. The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Lazare, Bernard. AntiSemitism: Its History and Causes. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. Marks, Steven How Russia Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Marrus, Michael R. The Politics of Assimilation: A Study of the French Jewish Community at the time of the Dreyfus Affair. London: Oxford University Press, 1971
Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976.
Poliakov, Leon. The History of Anti-Semitism. London: Elek Books, 1965.
Pulzer, P. J. The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964). This book was my source on mostly the Political role anti-Semitism played in Germany. A ton of good information.
Shyovitz, David. The Ameriacan-Isreali Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/hep.html. This was a very nice website that had anything anything you want to know about this topic. Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Daniel Gordon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 1999.
Political Anti-Semitism
Political Anti-SemitismAnti-Semitism is the prejudice against or the hostility for the Jewish people. This hostility can be traced back to ancient times and is often rooted in a hatred of the Jewish people’s ethnic background, religion and culture. As enlightenment ideas began to mix with anti-Semitic thought, anti-Semitism changed from being based primarily on religious reasons and transformed into racial discrimination. Anti-Semitic theorists took Social Darwinism and used it to show Jews as an “inferior race”.(1) Using racial inferiority as a basis Anti-Semitism took off as a conservative, reactionary political ideology that resisted change and modernization during the middle of the 19th century. At the heart of anti-Semitism was the propaganda that was used to spread anti-Semitism to the downtrodden classes that were suffering during the economic and political changes that were taking place. At this time Jewish communities were achieving emancipation and equal rights throughout Europe. The political movement was partly a backlash against that emancipation and partly a response to the role that Jewish people were playing in the economic and political changes that were taking place. The movement of political anti-Semitism took the anxieties of the people about new political and economic changes and concentrated it on a single scapegoat, the Jewish people. To all the conservatives who saw modernization stripping away tradition, they could discern one figure spearheading the movement forward and that was the Jew. (2)
Nick Kaschub
1 Chambers, M., Hanawalt, B., Rabb, T. K., Woloch, I., Grew, R., & Tiersten, L. The Western Experience. Vol. 2, 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw Hill Inc., 2007 757-758.
2 Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976, 168.
Political Anti-Semitism in Germany:
The Brothers Grimm: In Germany from 1789-1914 A.D. historians saw the rise of political anti-Semitism rising to level never before seen which would spread throughout the rest of Europe. The rise and spread of political anti-Semitism has many forms in Germany during this period. The first form is in literature that spread anti-Semitic propaganda painting Jewish people as villainous thieves, murders, and monsters. An example of this type of literature is the collection of 209 short stories, folk tales, and fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm that they wrote in 1812 A.D. Parents would read these tales to their children teaching them to fear and hate the Jews. The irrational hatred created in the youth would have long lasting implications on them throughout their lives.
Heinrich von Treitschke: Another author that used his pen to spread anti-Semitism was Heinrich von Treitschke (1834-1896 A.D.). Treitschke was a German historian that wrote and lecture about politics. He was strongly for the unification of Germany into one state instead of remaining as smaller states. In 1863 A.D. he became a professor at Freiburg until 1866 A.D. when he moved to Berlin to support the Prussians during the Austro-Prussian War also known as the “Seven Weeks War.” It is at this time that he was appointed to edit the conservative journal the Preussische Jahrbücher which has his most famous quotes used by political anti-Semites for years to come. “Year after year there pours over our Eastern frontier…from the inexhaustible Polish cradle, a host of ambitious, trouser-selling youths, whose children and children’s children are one day to dominate Germany’s stock exchanges and newspapers…Right into the most educated circles, among men who would reject with disgust any thought of ecclesiastical intolerance or national pride, we can hear, as if from one mouth, “The Jews are our misfortune””[1]. This just shows Treitschke’s strong motivation of nationalism amongst the German peoples.
He also expressed that people could not have duel or double nationalities which he called Doppelnationalitat. Anyone who did not assimilate into Germany and thought of themselves as a race or religious group could not be considered both. Treitschke along with his colleagues in the German Conservative Party was also trying to establish Germany as the most Political Anti-Semite country in the world. “Treitschke proudly proclaimed that “the fatherland of modern anti-Semitism is Germany, where the systems were thought out of the slogans coined. The German literature is the richest in anti-Jewish writing.” Whether Germany was, in fact, the most anti-Jewish country in the world was a matter of opinion, but Treitschke and like-minded Jew-haters were doing their best to make it so”[2]. By looking at the popular authors and their writings in Germany during this time period it shows the rapid spread of ideas of political anti-Semitism.
The Christian Social Party:
The Christian Social Party was a political party that started in 1878 A.D. in Germany by Adolf Stocker. The creation of this highly Conservative political party was to counter the strong Liberal and Socialist parties in Germany at this time. Stocker brought together strong Conservative and Christian ideals to gain support against the Social Democrats who had the most power in Germany. The general election in 1878 A.D. was their first test to see if they could get some control by gaining any of the six open capital’s seats. “The Christian Social Party contested three of the capital’s six seats and fought on an independent program which demanded professional corporations and compulsory arbitration, old age and invalid pensions, factory legislation, restoration of the usury laws, progressive taxation, and taxation of stock exchange dealings and luxuries”[3]. Stocker was unable to gain the support from the working class and they were unable to gain any of the six seats. Instead the Christian Social Party attracted the attention of the middle class and intellectuals when Stocker embraced anti-Semitism. “By 1879, however Stocker had nothing to lose by embracing anti-Semitism. The workers had turned a deaf ear and the Liberal press and politicians of Berlin, both comprising numerous influential Jews, had been hostile from the start. They resented not only his clericalism and his conservatism, but also his social program which threatened their moneybags”[4]. Later on with a collation with the Conservative Party, Adolf Stocker was able to obtain a seat in the Reichstag. Eventually the Conservative Party would end the collation with the Christian Social Party due to Stocker’s strong Anti-Semitic views. The Christian Social Party will eventually in the early 1900s dissolve with the members joining or forming new political parties, but their long lasting impression of using political anti-Semitism would change German politics for years to come.
The Hep Hep Riots:
Throughout Europe for centuries the Jewish people had been regarded as non-citizens and without rights. Throughout the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth centuries Jews were lobbying their governments to be emancipated. When Napoleon Bonaparte of France went through Germany he emancipated the Jews and freed them from their ghettos under the Prussian Edict of 1812 A.D. “From a political point of view, emancipation was still half realized because the Prussian Edict of 1812, which promised the Jews full equality under the law, was riddled with loopholes, was significantly curtailed in the wake of Napoleon’s defeat, and was not fully implemented for all of Germany until 1871”[5]. In 1815 A.D. Jewish representatives went to the Congress of Vienna to demand that they be formally emancipated, but anti-Jewish supporters portrayed the Jewish people as trouble makers who are trying to get more power over Europe. “This widespread lie, combined with the fact that many Europeans, reeling from the famine of 1816, were heavily indebted to Jewish bankers and moneylenders, sparked violence beginning in Wuerzburg in August of 1819. The attacks on Jews and Jewish property spread from there to whole of Germany, with particularly vicious conflict occurring in Frankfurt, Leipzig, Dresden, and Darmstadt”[6]. This would start a series of anti-Jewish disturbances known as the Hep Hep riots.
The origin of name Hep Hep riots is unknown, but scholars believe that there are two possible origins. The first is that it is an acronym for “Hierosolyma est perdita” a cry used by Crusaders which means that “Jerusalem is lost.” The second competing theory of the origin is that it was a cry that sheep herders would yell out to their sheep. Historians believe that this was borrowed by Jew-baiters to use as a slogan to provoke the Jews into a fight. “The local German authorities invariably responded to the disturbances by protecting the Jews; in several cases, they even called in the military to hold back rioters. However, the government’s reaction was not entirely favorable to the Jews. While they protected them physically, many rulers used the attacks as pretexts not to grant equal rights to Jews, explaining that if even the suggestion of such a move was provoking popular unrest, the actual granting of such would lead to catastrophe”[7]. It is not until after the revolutions of 1848 A.D. that a decisive change came in the legal status of the Jews making them emancipated.
Blood Libel in Xanten, Germany:
Blood libels are trails that Christians used to demonize Jews by connecting them with the devil and sorcery which dominated throughout the Middle Ages in Europe. “The blood libel was the accusation that according to the Jewish religion, Christian infants or young children had to be abducted, abused, tortured, slaughtered, and their blood consumed (especially on the occasion of Passover) for religious purposes”[8]. They believed that the blood was used for medical purposes, making Matzoth (unleavened bread), mock crucifications, or for vengeance. In Prussia in 1891 A.D. the death of a five year old child named Johann Hegmann started a blood libel which would polarize the people against the Jewish people. “In 1891, at Xanten in Prussia, a butcher named Adolph Buschhoff, was accused of murdering a 5 year old Johann Hegmann, and of drawing his blood and concealing it. However, the two public prosecutors found that the accused could not have committed the deed, and that there was no evidence showing that blood had been concealed”[9]. The news of this libel spread all across Europe and would have long lasting implications which continued the superstitious anti-Semitic beliefs of the Jews stealing and killing children.
Conclusion Germany:
Thoughout most of the late eighteenth century to early twentieth centuries the cloud of Anti-Semitism grew over Germany until the storm would eventually spread throughout the rest of Europe. By looking at the literature and authors in this time period historians can pick up how Jews were being viewed in Germany. From the Grimm Brothers Tales to Treistschke's work the growing hatred for Jews was being read by children and intellectuals from all different walks of life throughout Europe at an alarming rate. Also looking at the political parts at the time like the Christian Social Party show the birth of political anti-Semitism in government. Granted the Christian Social Party did not successed during the elections, but they opened the door for more anti-Semitic political organizations to control seats of power in Germany and in other European countries. Finally by looking at the Hep Hep riots and the blood libel in Xanten these show how the media coverage of these events would demonize the Jewish people and depict them as Liberals trying to control all of Europe. In the following years after this time period we see political anti-Semitism at its strongest in Germany and the rests of that are still able to be seen in this present day.
Alex J. M. Helland
End Notes:
1.) Pulzer, P. J. The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964) 249.
2.) Fischer, Klaus P. The History of an Obsession: German Judeophobia and the Holocaust (New York: Continuum Publishing Company, 1998) 109.
3.) Pulzer, P. J., 91-92.
5.) Fischer, Klaus P., 94.
6.) Shyovitz, David. The Ameriacan-Isreali Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/hep.html.
7.)Shyovitz, David.
8.) Laqueur, Walter. The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
9.) Isseroff, Ami. Zionism and Israel Information Center. http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/blood_libel.htm.
French Anti-Semitism
French Revolution
Before the French Revolution, anti-Semitism in France was similar there as it was in other places in Europe. Anti-Semitic policies existed in France. Jews were excluded from trade in certain areas, including city of Marseilles in 1652. Paris opposed Jewish settlement up until 1767 and Jews had to pay special taxes and could not own land in most of the major cities of France. (1) With the French Revolution came the emancipation of the Jews. They now had the right to vote and participate in government. They transitioned from outsiders of society to active citizens. (2) The traditional motivations for anti-Semitism were based in theological ideals. Revolutionary concepts like liberty, equality and even deism to some extent, undermined those concepts based on religious doctrines. (3) Citizenship for Jews was founded on the radical dedication of the ‘rights of man’ as put forth in the Declaration of the Rights of Man in August, 1789, which opened with the like “Let there be neither Jew nor Christian…” Religion was no longer supposed the determining factor for whether or not someone could be a citizen. It was supposed to be a private aspect of a person’s life and not something factored in to the secular realm.4] 5]
Napoleon
Following the fallout of the French Revolution, Napoleon came to power to restore order and went on to conquer a majority of Europe. Napoleon freed the Jews in all the territories he conquered as part of liberal policies. They were granted civil liberties in such places as Switzerland, Holland, and Italy by the 1790s. Napoleon himself was not necessarily pro-Jew. In certain situation he accommodated anti-Semitic sentiments for strategic reasons and hampered the upward mobility of Jewish populations in conquered regions. [6] He was able to garner support from within the Jewish community. French Jews were able to spread throughout French society, from upper class to lower working class. [7] In 1806 and 07 he called meetings with the Assembly of (Jewish) French Notables in order to ensure their support, but the Jews were not major collaborators in his imperial master plan. Still these meetings unintentionally sparked rumors he was working for the Jews from anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists. They believe Napoleon was their puppet and that his overall agenda was their design. 8]
Napoleonic Backlash
Once Napoleon fell from power many of the civil liberties that the Jewish community attained in conquered territories were repealed. The reversal of Jewish emancipation was part of the reaction against the “Age of Reason,” the French Revolution, and Napoleon. 9] The 1820s and 1830s saw periods of intense anti-Jewish backlash. Even when they saw areas of improvement it never came without cost. In 1846 French Jews were able to get full legal rights in France as part of a rise in liberalization in government. They would gain political and economic ground but then during the crisis 1848 anti-Jewish riots broke out all across France. 10] Jews stood as a symbol for why liberal policies it did not work. Whenever they granted more rights and participation in government things would get worse. Of course this was a grave oversimplification of the situation, but in times of social crisis it seemed to make enough sense. 11]
In the late 1800s racism became major component to anti-Semitism. Conservatives and Catholics Christians argued that Jews were biological contaminants to larger human race. [12] Because liberalism was letting them into society they spread their influence like an infection and created economic and political turmoil were symptoms of their nefarious deeds. [13] Also part of the sharp explosion of anti-Semitism in France was the failure on the part of the Jews to assimilate into French society. By this time they were supposed to have fully integrated into the French social strata. The ideals of nationalism and socialism, with the new biological and sociological theories, grow the seeds for a new anti-Semitism that assumed that Jews would lose their Jewish identities if they actually intended to become a part of France. [14] The Revolution made them citizens and by the mid 19th Century they achieved equal rights. At a certain point they were supposed to become completely French and shed their Jewish identities. [15]
French Anti Semites
There were a number of French anti-Semites who made assimilation difficult. Utopian socialist, Charles Fourier, saw Jews as ruthless and “unreconstructible” capitalists. Jews were crude businessmen who profited off the misery and suffering of the working class. The French Enlightenment thinker and author Voltaire saw Jews as clannish and fraudulent people. [16] He made Jews out to be perverse villains in his works of fiction. For instance, in Candide the main character is swindled by Jews who refused to pay full price for the diamonds he was selling in order to handle certain legal entanglements. Due to these financial constraints he was forced to live on a lowly farm because that was all he could afford. [17] The prospect of assimilation drew many Jews from all over Europe to France, but French anti-Semites stayed as constant reminder that they were Jews. Many even expressed a certain amount of the distrust of the assimilated Jew, for they were trying to hide who they really were. [18]
Also an interesting place to find ant-Semitic sentiments was from within the assimilated Jewish community. For example Bernard Lazare was an assimilated French Jew who did everything he could to diminish he association to the Jewish community. Originally known for his anarchist leaning he campaigned in 1894 for the freedom of anarchist Jean Grave. He wrote a book on anti-Semitism, its history and origins, between the years 1891-94. He blamed much of the historical anti-Semitism on the Jews themselves. [19] He was frustrated with the Jewish people in France, particularly those who maintained exclusive Jewish communities. [20] He downplayed the Christian roots of anti-Semitism in Rome and after the Diaspora. Jews were reclusive and were excessively prideful in the Jewish identities. He explained that was the source of much of the resentment towards the Jews throughout history.[21] Lazare also denounced the victims fleeing czarist persecution in Russian. After all, he believed the eastern European Jews exemplified all negative Jewish stereotypes. [22] He felt that assimilated Jews were more refined and educated. Assimilated revolutionists like Marx and Lassalle were better examples of how Jews were supposed to be. He believed anti-Semitism would end when new ideals were finally put into practice and all the artificial barriers that separated Jews from the general population would be eliminated. [23]
Dreyfus Affair
There are exceptional explosion of Anti-Semitism in France in the 1890s. A great deal of it was rooted in the arrest and prosecution of Alfred Dreyfus, a French Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of leaking secrets to the German government. [24] At first, it was a relatively quiet event. Dreyfus was arrested and imprisoned without much incident in 1894. But as time progressed it became a great national issue and evidence surfaced proving his innocence. By 1898, the campaign to free Dreyfus had become a national issue and doubts in regards to the evidence became public. Anti-Semitic riots broke out and mobs formed in several cities. French Jews were forced to examine the politics of assimilation. Most of them feared the Dreyfus affair fueled anti-Semitism. The more the issue was dragged out the worse it would be for Jewish community. They chose to remain silent on the issue and refused to take a side. [25] French Jews weathered the conflict and remained committed to the ideals of equality and emancipation promised by the French revolution. However a small faction challenged to status quo would not let Dreyfus live out his life behind bars. [26] Emile Zola was one individual who is known as a defender of Jewish rights and played a major role in Alfred Dreyfus’ eventual emancipation. While he was still in favor of assimilation he pointed out that “if the Jews still existed, it was the fault of Anti-Semitism.” Jews would have assimilated if it were not for the kind of persecution that was happening to Dreyfus. [26]
The Dreyfus affair forced assimilated Jews to reassess their position in society. In 1895, Bernard Lazare, an assimilated Jew, was approached by Dreyfus family to look into the situation. This was a departure from his anarchist ideals, since Dreyfus was from an upper class Jewish family, a French patriot, and military officer. He discovered there was an underlying campaign against the Jewish officers in the French military and released a booklet of inconsistencies in the Dreyfus case. [27] Over the course of his investigation and propaganda campaign, Bernard Lazare abandoned his personal anti-Semitic reservations and become a defender of Jewish emancipation after the Dreyfus affair. [28] Lazare saw anti-Semitism as a cornerstone for French Catholic capitalist society, and Alfred Dreyfus was a symbol of the oppressed Jew. Although he was assimilated for the most part he was still an easy scapegoat and object of persecution for the Christian oppressors. [29] Before Dreyfus, Lazare thought that ‘national exclusiveness’ and nationalism would dissolve after revolution occurred. After the affair, Lazare decided nationalism could be different from ‘national exclusiveness.’ People ought to have freedom to define their own cultural identity according their personal resources. Forcing the population into uniformity destroyed originality and peculiarity. [30]
Jerod Koehler, French Anti-Semitism
1] Jaher, Frederic C. A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994. 84
2] Jaher, 4
3] Jaher, 114
4] Jaher, 116
5] Marrus, Michael R. The Politics of Assimilation: A Study of the French Jewish Community at the time of the Dreyfus Affair. London: Oxford University Press, 1971. 87
6] Jaher, 9, 116
7] Marrus, 49
8] Jaher, 117
9] Jaher, 117
10] Jaher, 171
11] Lazare, Bernard. AntiSemitism: Its History and Causes. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1995. 100
12] Jaher, 171
13] Lazare, 158
14] Jaher, 117
15] Maher, 94-96
16] Jaher, 114
17] Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Daniel Gordon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 1999. 113, 116
18] Marrus, 49-50
19] Lazare, v
20] Marrus, 187
21] Lazare, xvi
22] Marrus, 189
23] Marrus, 177
24] Jaher, 242-243
25] Marrus, 222
26] Marrus, 163
27] Marrus, 171
28] Lazare, v-vi
29] Lazare, xvi
30] Marrus, 188, 191
Anti-Semitism in Tsarist Russia
Anti-Semitism in Russia in the 19th and early 20th century like anti-Semitism in other parts of the world changed from a religiously based line of thought to a racially and politically motivated ideology. Russian anti-Semitism during this time was, again like in other parts of the world, a reactionary movement against a new and modern social order. Jews were seen as representatives of this modernization as financiers, traders and revolutionaries. The reactionary movement in Russia was especially harsh because of the backwards, essentially medieval structure of government leading into the twentieth century. This medieval style of government was extremely oppressive with respect to the Jewish people and there were tomes of restrictions heaped upon the Jews in Russian society."Specific to Jews were more than a thousand pages of restrictive legislation" (1).
Jews in Russia
The oppression of the Jewish people was quite extreme in Tsarist Russia. Not only were there thousands of pages as stated above of restrictive legislation but the movement of Jewish people in Russia was greatly restricted. Jews were restricted for the most part to settle only in the “Pale of Settlement” in western Russia which was established under Catherine II in 1772. (2) On top of this restricted movement Jews were restricted from entering upper education and banned from many professions. This oppression radicalized many Jews and transformed them into liberal revolutionaries. These Jews protested their second rate status and the Tsarist government that oppressed them. The Jew as a liberal revolutionary just added to the Russian population’s demonization of the Jewish people and gave anti-Semitic nationalist politicians more ammunition.(3) In Russia Jews were seen as agents of modernization as they were successful businessmen and entrepreneurs. In Russia where there was possibly a more severe backlash to modernization than any other part of the world. Many nationalist, right wing parties saw the Jewish businessman as the form for modernization. As traditional economic and political institutions in Russia were giving way to modern institutions the traditionalist, nationalist right sought to use anti-Semitism as the main vehicle to combat change and modernization.
Russian Pogroms
Modern anti-Semitism did not start in Russia however anti-Semitism as a political movement was furthered through its Russian practitioners. One of the most blatant displays of anti-Semitism in the world up to this point was the Russian pogroms. The Russian anti-Semitic pogroms as they are now known were large-scale, targeted and repeated anti-Semitic rioting. These riots occurred on a small-scale in 1821, 1849, 1859, and 1871 however new circumstances caused for an eruption of pogroms during three time periods. From 1881-1884, 1903-1906 and 1915-1921. (4) During these pogroms men, women and children were looted, raped, terrorized and killed. While violence escalated from pogrom to pogrom overall there were over 100,000 Jewish casualties between the three time periods. The three waves of pogroms coincide with major events in the turmoil of Russia. The first wave of pogroms came shortly after the murder of the liberal tsar Alexander II. The Jews were implicated in Alexander’s murder and that along with other anti-Semitic propaganda set the stage for the first wave of pogroms. The beginning of the 20th century started off terribly with a famine and an outbreak of cholera in 1902 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904. All of these events were deflected by the Russian government and animosity was directed toward the Jews in Russia. (5) `The third wave of pogroms came about during a time of great turmoil with the disintegration of the Russian Tsarist regime and the ensuing revolution. The power vacuum that was created by the Russian Revolution allowed the Black Hundreds to orchestrate pogroms with little resistance.
The Black Hundreds
One of the driving forces behind these pogroms was known as the Black Hundreds. This collection of anti-capitalist, anti- Semitic far right movements was one of the leading forces in the execution of the pogroms and the overall zeal of the anti-Semitic movement in Russia. While the pogroms were largely spontaneous outbursts of anti-Semitic violence in a combustible, modernizing Russia the Black Hundreds played an essential role in organizing and stepping up the violence in the sequential pogroms. The main political group in the Black Hundreds was the URP or Union of the Russian People headed by Dr. A.I. Dubrovin.(6) While the many political groups included in the Black Hundreds did not see eye to eye on most politics, they had one key issue that unified them and that was their passion for anti-Semitism. "Although one can find points of contact between the far right and far left, or the far right and traditional conservatives, it was the radical right's mono-obsession with the Jews that was its most distinctive feature" (7). While the pogroms caused the destruction of vast amounts of Jewish life and property there was significant anti-Semitic literature that was coming out of Russia during the late 19th century and especially in the beginning of the 20th century. The most significant and transcendent piece of this anti-Semitic literature is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. “The Protocols were purportedly the secret resolutions of international Jewish leaders, a game plan for the domination of the world and enslavement of the goyim- Yiddish for Gentiles” (8).
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
The Protocols became a powerful tool for the spread of anti-Semitic thought throughout Europe and the entire world. While their greater effect was felt after WWI their initial publication was in 1905 by Pavolachi Krushevan a supporter and organizer of a pogrom in 1903. The Protocols have long been proven to by a forgery, a combination of both earlier French and German anti-Semitic work and it is still uncertain the original author of this work .The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are possibly the single most significant piece of anti-Semitic literature that was created during the political anti-Semitic movement of the 19th and early 20th century.(9)
“At least a decade before its counterparts in other countries, the Russian extreme right came close to formulating a strain of national socialism. Its alliance of old elites and resentful masses; its radical rejectionism; its reliance on violence as its chief political tool; and its demagogic anti-Semitism all anticipated the future fascist movements of France, Germany, and Romania” (10).
Nick Kaschub
1] Marks, Steven How Russia Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003, 142.
2] Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976, 183.
3]Marks, 143
4]Marks, 144
5]Morais, 185
6]Marks, 147
7]Marks, 148
8]Marks, 149
9]Marks, 151
10] Marks, 149
Key Figures & Primary Source:
The nineteenth century was full of influential people and revolutions that would change the way people lived, worked, and played.
The revolutions ranged from the enlightenment to the Napoleonic age. This meant a great change was going to happen and what was happening. With all of the changes someone needed to be a scapegoat for all of the problems that would arise while these revolutions and movements were happening. The main movement that was going on in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was that of anti-Semitism. This was a movement in which the Jewish community was going to be the scapegoat for all the problems that would arise from all of the mayhem that was going on. There were many influences of this movement ranging from brothers to a musician to a chaplain.
Richard Wagner:The first of these three main influences is the music composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner. He was born in Leipzig, Germany. He was married and moved to Dresden this is where he was introduced to a leftist policy that wanted to form a unified state for the poor people of Germany. He would hold gatherings for those who were going with this movement some of these influential people included his colleague August Röckel and a Russian anarchist.[1] There would soon be an uprising and the government would take those who were for the revolution in Dresden. While Rockel and the anarchist were apprehended and imprisoned, this while Wagner ran away to Paris and then lived in Zurich for the next twelve years.[2]
Wagner was exiled from his home and continued to write his music and operas. He also believed that his father was not his father but composer Geyer; whom Richard thought was Jewish. Richard Wagner was knows as one of the first people to judge the Jews not by the religion or political motives but just on race itself.[3] This is a great meaning to the time, due to the fact, that the Jews were no longer being hated for things they were doing but for whom they were born.
Wagner wrote his first essay of his thoughts titled “Judaism in Music”. This was to attack his main rivals who were Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn. The two composers were of Jewish heritage. With both of the rivals being of the same race helped influence Wagner to write this essay. This essay was to go against everything that Jews were capable of. Richard Wagner wanted to make sure that everyone was able to see that Jews were bad.[4] This did not happen the first time that essay was published. The first time it was published was early in his lifetime while people were focused on their own worries and not so much on the writings of some unknown person. After Wagner had become better known and his hatred became more noticeable he republished the “Judaism in Music”. This time the essay had a greater effect on the people of society. He had the reactions that he had expected some wrote back to the newspaper with hatred for Wagner, whilst others wrote in support of what Wagner had to say.[5]
The essay stated that the Jews had no connection to the German spirit. This meant that they were not born of German heritage and were not of the same souls or spirit of those who were. The Jews were supposedly different from the rest of the German people. Also, in the essay Wagner mentions that the Jews were incapable of producing their own music. They were only able to produce shallow and artificial music. The music that the Jews were producing was stolen works from the great composers that were before their time. He criticized their work for being very hard to follow and allowing for confusion among the listeners.[6] There was no Jewish composer who could have the ability to produce music in an artistic way because they had no true compassion to help in creating a wonderful masterpiece. This was just the beginning of the influential works that Richard Wagner would create about the Jews and there music.
Wagner in his later life would be known for his sensational music. He would have created some of the best works that society still knows today. Even though his music would be astonishing they would not out do his written works. After he published his essay the second time he was not going to be remembered just for his music but also his anti-Semitic writing. In 1899, Richard Wagner and Arthur De Gobineau wrote a book called The Foundation of the 19th Century. This was about the superiority of the Aryan race and was read worldwide. This would become a staple reading during the reign of Hitler.[7]
Adolf Stoecker:
The most influential of the time may be one of the greatest and scariest influential people. This person was Adolf Stoecker. He was a very strong anti-Semite. This is because he believed that the German culture was being over taken by the emancipated Jews. He would dedicate his life to the Christian faith. He would hold the place of chaplain in the court under the rule of Kaiser Wilhelm. This would help Stoecker gain the confidence and the following to create the Christian Social Party. This party was to manipulate the Social Democracy among the workers. He wanted to gain the backing of the working class to make the party he created gain in force. This did not work in the first election.[8] Antisemitism was at the early stages at this point. Stoecker used the backing of those that were following him to give speeches to those that would listen. He tried to use that as a hidden agenda to gain more power. Adolf wanted to make sure that Jews were going to lose any and all status that they had.
Stoecker using this new platform to gain followers gave a speech about what the civil rights of the Jews. In 1879 he delivered a speech called “What we demand of modern Jewry". In this speech he made several demands of the Jews. The demands were that the Jews renounce their ambition to rule Germany. Secondly, they make their press more tolerant of German culture. Finally that there be quotas placed on the number of Jews that were in a certain professions and in universities.[9] He wanted these things to make sure that the Jewish communities knew there place and did not try to overtake the Aryan race. Stoecker wanted to place quotas on what and where the communities of Jews were so they could keep track of them. He did not want them to be in the educated work force. So he kept them out of schools and colleges that would make them smarter than some of those that he believed was superior.
Adolf Stoecker was a great influence over the people of his time because of him being a chaplain, but in the end it was not who he was it was what he created. The party he created would go on and be one of the biggest groups to be hateful to not only the Jews but anyone who was different. Hitler would be one of the followers of Stoecker and his party. So it was because of the Christian Political Party that allowed for Germany to become one of the biggest Anti-Semitic countries in the world.[10]
Grimm's Brothers:
The final major influence during this time was the Grimm Brothers. They were and still are known for their set of folktales and fairytales. They published two hundred and nine stories. The most common are “Snow White”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Cinderella” with stories about love and how love wins out.[11] The prince always saves the girl from sort of trouble, with fairytales like these the Grimm Brothers have become a great influence not only in their generation but also the generations that follow them. These are the stories people hear about after the military shut down all of the anti-Semitic movements and people. The only thing is what happened to all of the other stories.
These stories are the ones in which the Jews are the villains. They lie, steal and cheat from those who are of the superior race. The story in which the brothers made sure they were able to make a very clear point to show their loathing for the Jewish race is in the story “The Jew Amongst the Thorns”. Parents found these stories to be a great influence on the children of those that believed that the Jews were to be blamed.[12] Children from a young age were taught of the horrible Jews and that they were not to be trusted. This was a great influence in the young population of Germany.
Primary Source: Grimm's Brothers "The Jews Amongst the Thorns"
There was once a rich man, who had a servant who served him diligently and honestly. He was every morning the first out of bed, and the last to go to rest at night, and whenever there was a difficult job to be done, which nobody cared to undertake, he was always the first to set himself to it. Moreover, he never complained, but was contented with everything and always merry. When a year was ended, his master gave him no wages, for he said to himself, that is the cleverest way, for I shall save something and he will not go away, but stay quietly in my service. The servant said nothing, but did his work the second year as he had done it the first, and when at the end of this, likewise, he received no wages, he submitted and still stayed on. When the third year also was past, the master considered, put his hand in his pocket, but pulled nothing out. Then at last the servant said, master, for three years I have served you honestly, be so good as to give me what I ought to have, for I wish to leave, and look about me a little more in the world. Yes, my good fellow, answered the old miser, you have served me industriously, and therefore you shall be graciously rewarded. And he put his hand into his pocket, but counted out only three farthings, saying, there, you have a farthing for each year, that is large and liberal pay, such as you would have received from few masters. The honest servant, who understood little about money, put his fortune into his pocket, and thought, ah, now that I have my purse full, why need I trouble and plague myself any longer with hard work. So on he went, up hill and down dale, and sang and jumped to his heart's content. Now it came to pass that as he was going by a thicket a little man stepped out, and called to him, whither away, merry brother. I see you do not carry many cares. Why should I be sad, answered the servant, I have enough. Three years, wages are jingling in my pocket. How much is your treasure, the dwarf asked him. How much. Three farthings sterling, all told. Look here, said the dwarf, I am a poor needy man, give me your three farthings, I can work no longer but you are young, and can easily earn your bread. And as the servant had a good heart, and felt pity for the little man, he gave him the three farthings, saying, take them in the name of heaven, I shall not be any the worse for it. Then the little man said, as I see you have a good heart I grant you three wishes, one for each farthing, they shall all be fulfilled. Aha, said the servant, you are one of those who can work wonders. Well, then, if it is to be so, I wish, first, for a gun, which shall hit everything that I aim at, secondly, for a fiddle, which when I play on it, shall compel all who hear it to dance, thirdly, that if I ask a favor of any one he shall not be able to refuse it. All that shall you have, said the dwarf, and put his hand into the bush, and just imagine, there lay a fiddle and gun, all ready, just as if they had been ordered. These he gave to the servant, and then said to him, whatever you may ask at any time, no man in the world shall be able to deny you. Heart alive. What more can one desire, said the servant, to himself, and went merrily onwards. Soon afterwards he met a Jew with a long goat's beard, who was standing listening to the song of a bird which was sitting up at the top of a tree. Good heavens, he was exclaiming, that such a small creature should have such a fearfully loud voice. If it were but mine. If only someone would sprinkle some salt upon its tail. If that is all, said the servant, the bird shall soon be down here. And taking aim he blew, and down fell the bird into the thorn-bushes. Go, you rogue, he said to the Jew, and fetch the bird out for yourself. Oh, said the Jew, leave out the rogue, my master, and I will do it at once. I will get the bird out for myself, now that you have hit it. Then he lay down on the ground, and began to crawl into the thicket. When he was fast among the thorns, the good servant's humor so tempted him that he took up his fiddle and began to play. In a moment the Jew's legs began to move, and to jump into the air, and the more the servant fiddled the better went the dance. But the thorns tore his shabby coat from him, combed his beard, and pricked and plucked him all over the body. Oh, dear, cried the Jew, what do I want with your fiddling. Leave the fiddle alone master, I do not want to dance. But the servant did not listen to him, and thought, you have fleeced people often enough, now the thorn-bushes shall do the same to you. And he began to play over again, so that the Jew had to jump higher than ever, and scraps of his coat were left hanging on the thorns. Oh, woe's me, cried the Jew, I will give the gentleman whatsoever he asks if only he leaves off fiddling, a whole purseful of gold. If you are so liberal, said the servant, I will stop my music, but this I must say to your credit, that you dance to it so well that one must really admire it. And having taken the purse he went his way. The Jew stood still and watched the servant quietly until he was far off and out of sight, and then he screamed out with all his might, you miserable musician, you beer-house fiddler. Wait till I catch you alone, I will hunt you till the soles of your shoes fall off. You ragamuffin, just put six farthings in your mouth, that you may be worth three halfpence. And went on abusing him as fast as he could speak. As soon as he had refreshed himself a little in this way, and got his breath again, he ran into the town to the justice. My lord judge, he said, I have come to make a complaint, see how a rascal has robbed and ill-treated me on the public highway. A stone on the ground might pity me, my clothes all torn, my body pricked and scratched, my little all gone with my purse - good ducats, each piece better than the last, for God's sake let the man be thrown into prison. Was it a soldier, said the judge, who cut you thus with his sabre. Nothing of the sort, said the Jew, it was no sword that he had, but a gun hanging at his back, and a fiddle at his neck, the wretch may easily be recognized. So the judge sent his people out after the man, and they found the good servant, who had been going quite slowly along, and they found, too, the purse with the money upon him. As soon as he was taken before the judge he said, I did not touch the Jew, nor take his money, he gave it to me of his own free will, that I might leave off fiddling because he could not bear my music. Heaven defend us, cried the Jew, his lies are as thick as flies upon the wall. But the judge also did not believe his tale, and said, this is a bad defence, no Jew would do that. And because he had committed robbery on the public highway, he sentenced the good servant to be hanged. As he was being led away the Jew again screamed after him, you vagabond. You dog of a fiddler. Now you are going to receive your well-earned reward. The servant walked quietly with the hangman up the ladder, but upon the last step he turned round and said to the judge, grant me just one request before I die. Yes, if you do not ask your life, said the judge. I do not ask for life, answered the servant, but as a last favor let me play once more upon my fiddle. The Jew raised a great cry of, murder. Murder. For goodness, sake do not allow it. Do not allow it. But the judge said, why should I not let him have this short pleasure. It has been granted to him, and he shall have it. However, he could not have refused on account of the gift which had been bestowed on the servant. Then the Jew cried, oh. Woe's me. Tie me, tie me fast. While the good servant took his fiddle from his neck, and made ready. As he gave the first scrape, they all began to quiver and shake, the judge, his clerk, and the hangman and his men, and the cord fell out of the hand of the one who was going to tie the Jew fast. At the second scrape they all leaped up and began to dance, the judge and the Jew being the best at jumping. Soon all who had gathered in the market-place out of curiosity were dancing with them, old and young, fat and lean, one with another. The dogs, likewise, which had run there, got up on their hind legs and capered about, and the longer he played, the higher sprang the dancers, so that they knocked against each other's heads and began to shriek terribly. At length the judge cried, quite of breath, I will give you your life if you will only stop fiddling. The good servant thereupon had compassion, took his fiddle and hung it round his neck again, and stepped down the ladder. Then he went up to the Jew, who was lying upon the ground panting for breath, and said, you rascal, now confess, whence you got the money, or I will take my fiddle and begin to play again. I stole it, I stole it, cried he, but you have honestly earned it. So the judge had the Jew taken to the gallows and hanged as a thief.[13]
End Notes:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Judenthum_in_der_Musik
3. Eylon, Lili. "The Controversy Over Richard Wagner." The Ameriacan-Isreali Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html.
4. Eylon, Lili
5. Eylon, Lili
6. Eylon, Lili
7. Eylon, Lili
8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Stoecker
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Stoecker
10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Stoecker
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm
12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm
13. http://www.familymanagement.com/literacy/grimms/grimms175.html
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Isseroff, Ami. Zionism and Israel Information Center. http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/blood_libel.htm.
Jaher, Frederic C. A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1994.
Laqueur, Walter. The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism: From Ancient Times to the Present Day (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Lazare, Bernard. AntiSemitism: Its History and Causes. Lincoln, Nebr.: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Marks, Steven How Russia Shaped the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003.
Marrus, Michael R. The Politics of Assimilation: A Study of the French Jewish Community at the time of the Dreyfus Affair. London: Oxford University Press, 1971
Morais, Vamberto. A Short History of Anti-Semitism. New York, NY: WW Norton and Company, 1976.
Poliakov, Leon. The History of Anti-Semitism. London: Elek Books, 1965.
Pulzer, P. J. The Rise of Political Anti-Semitism in Germany and Austria (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1964). This book was my source on mostly the Political role anti-Semitism played in Germany. A ton of good information.
Shyovitz, David. The Ameriacan-Isreali Cooperative Enterprise. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/hep.html. This was a very nice website that had anything anything you want to know about this topic.
Voltaire. Candide. Translated by Daniel Gordon. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin, 1999.